Visiting the Homeland

We spent 4 days in Jeff's hometown in Wisconsin, and had a lot of fun.  We visited good friends all along the roadtrip, we went to the beach, we met our new niece Abigail, we went to Jeff's 20th high school reunion, Jeff was the guest preacher in his home church and we just had a great time with Jeff's family.  Abigail is 2 months old and just as sweet as can be.  First girl of her generation in the family!  Casey was excited to meet her but didn't show too much interest once we were there.  Sam was not too interested when we talked about her before the trip, but was into giving her hugs and just checking in on her while we were there.  He was also borderline obsessed with her pink headband with the flower on it.  He really wanted her to be wearing it - he has such a sense of fashion :)  Carter is Abigail's big brother and is the same age is Sam.  Let's just say that Carter and Sam bring out each other's most energetic side :)  They were so funny together!  They played well, fought too, and had entertaining contests to see who could be loudest.  The mosquitoes were in rare form but that didn't stop the boys from playing outside and just having a a great time together.  Before we know it, Abigail will be right in the mix!

Casey loved the beach - we really need to find one around here! Both kids love playing in the sand and they are both getting more adventurous in the water, for better or worse. Later in the trip, at the hotel, Casey was willing to jump into the pool into our arms which is just a huge step for him.

Jeff took Casey to the train museum which he naturally LOVED


One of Jeff's best friends from high school owns the movie theater so we took the boys to meet Uncle George and saw "Despicable Me" This was Sam's first movie in a theater and he loved it - he laughed out loud, danced to the music and was really engaged the whole time. Casey can get a little scared in movies, but after this one, he told George it was awesome!

Jeff with some of his high school buddies, Joel and Ryan. The reunion was very casual but really fun - lots of folks came in from out of town and Jeff was able to reconnect with all kinds of people. Hard to believe it's been 20 years!

Nothing says vacation like the ball pit at Hardees

We left quite early in the morning to get home and left the boys in their pajamas for the ride. We stopped at the bridge for lunch and got the boys dressed and then they promptly ran right into the water and got soaking wet. They had a lot of fun though and got to ride the rest of the way home back in their dry jammies :)

The boys slept quite well - they were totally tuckered out! Can you tell what's missing from this photo? That's right, the pacifier. I forgot to pack the pacifiers. On our first leg of the trip we considered buying him some new ones, but then decided this might be the opportunity to get away from it altogether. He did really well - didn't even ask for it until the third night. When we got home though, he was clearly under the impression that this was just a temporary thing for the trip. First night back home was a little rough. But we decided to stick to it. We talked about how he was able to sleep without it on the trip and how we were really proud of him. He seemed to grasp that a bit. We aren't going to be too hard core, but it's something we have to do eventually as he doesn't seem to be the type to just give it up one day. Now that we are 6 nights into it, maybe it will stick. And now we are on thumb watch :)